The abandoned, yet fully intact Rock Island Railroad trestle over Bayou Boeuf south of Lecompte, Louisiana.
For many years I have had a fascination with the now defuncted Rock Island Railroad. As a youngster my family used to take a yearly pilgrimage to Texas to visit family for the holidays. Traveling across eastern New Mexico into the panhandle of Texas my eyes would survey a set of lonely single railroad tracks. For years I searched those tracks for a train to no avail. That was until the fall of 1978 when I spotted a small mixed train lead by a couple of high nosed Geeps. The train consisted of a couple of cabooses, a flat car, tank car and two boxcars. We had just crossed over the Texas line and I was excited to see just what railroad had owned this rarely used set of tracks. As we got closer the name on the locomotives came into view, "Rock Island".
Rock Island? I thought, at the time that it was some eastern railroad. Later on I would learn that The Rock was a rather large railroad that stretched from Chicago to the plains of eastern New Mexico at Tucumcari and as far south as Eunice, Louisiana.
Fast forward to present day. My family moved to Lecompte, Louisiana over two years ago and I was excited to learn the the once mighty Rock Island line once ran smack dab through the middle of town. Of course the Rock Island went bankrupt in the late 70s and the tracks of this once large Class 1 railroad were torn up in these parts in 1979.
That being said, remnants of the railroad can still be seen if you know where to look.
From this vantage point you can see where the Rock Island trackage emerged from the brush and crossed LA-470. In the distance is the Cargill Animal Feed Plant. Just beyond that the Rock Island crossed over what was once the Missouri Pacific Railroad (Now Union Pacific) and proceeded over an area now occupied by Highway 71 towards Alexandria, Louisiana.
The Rock Island crossed LA-470 at this spot.
The stand for the old railroad crossing signal still sits just off the roadway.
Just south of LA-470 the tracks crossed Lamourie Bayou over this trestle, whose supports are still mostly intact.
The railroad crossed Frankie Smith Road at this point and headed south through the woods.
This old wooden structure is directly adjacent to where the railroad enters the woods just south of Frankie Smith Road. This was literally as close as I could get to it due the vegetation, so I couldn't verify what it was. From it's location directly next to the railroad it could be a depot, crew barracks, or some sort of storage building.
The Rock Island exited the woods and ran along these telephone polls and open fields towards C C Road.
The railroad crossed C C Road at this point and headed through the fields towards Lecompte.
On the outskirts of Lecompte the Rock Island tracks enter a very heavily wooded area. The line would emerge on the other side adjacent to an area that used to be a lumber yard that was served by both The Rock and the Red River and Gulf Railroad.
Once inside the town of Lecompte the Rock Island ran along Ruth Ford Road (Once Railroad Avenue) through what is now just a grass covered open space in a residential area towards Bayou Boeuf. The tracks crossed Water Street onto this trestle. Again, the supports are still mostly intact.
Just beyond the bayou the railroad entered this area, which at one time was a major railroad junction between the Rock Island and the Red River and Gulf Railroad. Now it is an alfalfa field.
The Red River and Gulf Railroad (1905 - 1954) crossed the Rock Island at this point. The lumber railroad continued east from this point where it connected to the Missouri Pacific. Though it is impossible to see exactly where, the RR&G also connected to the Rock Island somewhere in this field. RR&G trains used the Rock Island tracks to cross Bayou Boeuf and gain access to the lumber yard in Lecompte.
After crossing the Red River & Gulf the Rock Island once again heads directly into the woods south of Lecompte. The former right of way is now a road into a local hunting club.
South of Lecompte the Rock Island would once again emerge from the woods and head into open farm land.
The Rock Island crossed the winding Bayou Boeuf one last time via this trestle, which unlike the two prior mentioned in this article, is still 100% intact. I can only assume that due to this bridges remote location the railroad didn't want to move in equipment to knock it down.
After crossing the bayou the Rock Island headed in a southwesterly direction along highway 187 towards Turkey Creek, Mamou and Eunice where the railroad connected to the Southern Pacific (now Union Pacific).
Now here is a real mystery. About fifty yards east of the former Rock Island tracks are these crumbling towers made of red brick. They are near the former railroad, but not adjacent to it, so I can't tell if they were railroad related or not. There were no markings on the structures so I have no idea what their purpose was.
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Those are probably ruins from a sugar plantation. I've seen ruins like that at Fountainebleu State Park near Mandeville.
ReplyDeleteThe trestel is mostly gone now!
ReplyDelete